Leijpark013

@leijpark013 · 18 Feb 2022

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Leijpark 013 Hunger Wasp

#leijpark013   #honeywasp
Published by Thierry P. Dinjens · 2 hours ·
In the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church knew its heyday, the people feared before the end of time, referred to by the term Apocalypse. This terrible time would reveal itself with the arrival of four terrifying horsemen: the plague, the war, hunger and death. In the Bible Book of Revelation, we find the same dark time, in which many victims fall, but in which the Good ends up restraining evil and ushering in the beginning of a New World.
No matter how symbolically we have to see all this, for which being there is literally an 'end of time'. No matter how well we all mean it in life, no matter how hard we work on ourselves and the progress of our offspring, one day it ends. That this fate affects us all is not a reassuring, but it is a fraternizing thought. Wherever we go, we're all going, so there's definitely a chance that we'll see each other again. Now it is not the case for us people that we are threatened every day, especially here in the rich West. In Leijpark, however, this is a completely different story. The bellbees live here and they eat peacefully the nectar of the meadow bell, the arable decoy and the grass bell, just to name a few bells. These only live bees make nests in hollow stems of plants, in corridors in dead wood, but also in the many insect hotels that are now made and hung by schoolchildren and nature associations.
This all sounds very peaceful, but they are plagued by a cunning and extremely effective predator that won't rest until the bellbee boy has been killed: the Hunger Wasp.
It does not come much slimmer than the Hunger Wasp and this insect also owes its name: it seems emaciated with hunger. Yet her slimness is just her strongest weapon. With her sturdy hind legs and her very slender body, she can crawl into the corridors that the bellbees have made or which they have gratefully used in insect hotels. At the rear, the female has a long drill, from which eggs come, which she lays in the nest of the bellbees. Her larvae hatch first, eat the pollen that Mum bellbee left her own offspring before, and then the young Hunger Wasp eats the unfortunate larvae of the bellbees. With all this food in her stomach, she pupates and voilà: a new Hunger Wasp sees the light of day.
The Hunger Wasp belongs to a larger group of wasps that we call the wasps. Because they are so extremely slim, they are also referred to as “floating fairy sticks”; as soon as they move into the grass, they 'disappear' before our eyes. This is also because they fly with the rear body straight up. It's like sticks, but with lethal results. It means the end of time for the brood of bellbees. But fortunately, there are far more bellbees than hunger wasps, so there is balance in the Leij Park. And I'm sure, once the great battle between Good and Evil is fought, one place remains fierce, since for many it is heaven on earth: the Leijpark.